INTRODUCTION

Since 1914 the world has been bedevilled by inflation, depression, devaluation, unstable exchange rates and other ‘diseases of money’. In 1923-4 hyperinflation wiped out the currencies of Germany, Hungary, Poland and Russia. Greece went the same way in 1944, and Hungary (again) in 1946. The depression of the 1930s had, some would argue, led directly to the Second World War. In the 1970s, nearly all countries suffered from double digit inflation or worse.